Routinel

Find every API in your code — and call it, Postman‑style, without leaving VS Code.

Routinel scans your workspace, automatically discovers every HTTP endpoint in any supported language, works out its path / query / header / body parameters (including sample JSON bodies built from your DTOs / models), and opens each one in a built‑in Postman‑like request client. The same client also works on its own as a third‑party HTTP client for any URL.

Screenshots: see the docs/ folder of the source.

Features

Supported languages & frameworks

Ports for the default environment are read from app.listen(), server.port, launchSettings.json, .env PORT=, uvicorn.run(port=…), r.Run(":8080"), OpenAPI servers, etc.

Projects — scan any folder or Git repository

You don't have to open a project in VS Code to see its APIs. Click Add Project (📚 icon in the Discovered APIs title bar) and choose:

• Choose a folder… / Type or paste a folder path… – any folder on your computer (e.g. C:\src\orders-service)
• Clone a Git repository… – HTTPS or SSH URL (+ optional branch); Routinel clones it with your installed git, then scans it

Each project is saved (in VS Code's global storage) with its discovered APIs, so it appears in every window and after restarts, and is re-scanned automatically when its files change. Right-click a project for Re-scan, Git Pull and Re-scan, Save APIs to a Collection, Export as Postman / OpenAPI, Open in New Window, Rename or Remove (files on disk are never deleted). You can also right-click any folder in the Explorer → Scan Folder for APIs, or list folders in the routinel.projects.paths setting. Set routinel.scan.workspace to false to show only the locations you provided.

Environments — base URL, username/password, tokens

Routinel: Manage Environments (⚙ next to the environment picker, or the status bar 🌐 Local → Manage environments…) opens a form where each environment has:

• Base URL ({{baseUrl}})
• Authorization: No Auth, Basic Auth (username / password), Bearer Token or API Key. Every request whose Auth tab is Inherit from environment (the default) uses it — switch environment to call the same APIs as another user or on another server.
• Variables table – tick Secret for passwords/tokens. Passwords, tokens, API-key values and secret variables are stored in the OS keychain (VS Code SecretStorage), never in environments.json.

Getting started

1. Install the extension (see below) and open a project folder.
2. Click the Routinel icon in the activity bar — your APIs appear under Discovered APIs.
3. Click an endpoint (or the ▶ CodeLens in the source) → the request editor opens with URL, parameters and a sample body pre-filled.
4. Pick/edit the environment (status bar 🌐 Local), then Send (Ctrl+Enter). Save (Ctrl+S) stores it in a collection.

Use Routinel: New Request (Ctrl+Alt+N) to call any URL, like Postman. Routinel: Search Discovered APIs (Ctrl+Alt+A) jumps to any endpoint.

Files created in your workspace

.routinel/
  environments.json        # environments & variables (shareable)
  environments.local.json  # optional per-machine overrides (git-ignored)
  collections.json         # saved collections (shareable)
  .gitignore

Keep tokens and passwords out of environments.json — use Set Secret Variable instead.

Settings

Install

From the VSIX: Extensions view → … menu → Install from VSIX… → choose routinel-1.1.0.vsix, or run code --install-extension routinel-1.1.0.vsix.

From source:

npm install
npm test                 # scanner + HTTP client unit tests
npx @vscode/vsce package # builds routinel-<version>.vsix

Press F5 in this folder to launch an Extension Development Host.

How detection works

Detection is static (no code is executed): each language module strips comments, finds route registrations with framework-aware patterns, reads handler signatures and bodies to infer parameters, and indexes models/DTOs across the workspace. A second pass resolves router mounts and prefixes across files. Anything dynamic (routes built from variables at runtime) may not be detected — you can always add it as a request in a collection.

Privacy

Everything runs locally inside VS Code. Requests go only to the URLs you send them to; nothing is sent anywhere else.

Releasing a new version

1. Double-click release.cmd (Windows).
2. Press Enter for the next patch version (or type minor, major or an exact version) and type what changed, one line per change.
3. The script updates package.json and CHANGELOG.md, runs the tests, commits as gauravgupta0612, tags vX.Y.Z and pushes.
4. GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release.yml) then builds routinel-X.Y.Z.vsix and creates the GitHub Release with the changelog notes and the .vsix attached. If the repository secret VSCE_PAT (an Azure DevOps token with Marketplace → Manage) is set, it also publishes to the VS Code Marketplace.

To re-run a release for an existing tag: GitHub → Actions → Release → Run workflow → enter the tag.